0:08Skip to 0 minutes and 8 secondsMy first memories of paid media were definitely in this arena. And it's something that I definitely dabbled in a little bit, but I really focused on the search engine optimisation at that point. I find that working towards optimizing is more effective for me. And I find that social advertising is working quite effectively, because of the reason that I really like the idea that you can target who your advertising to. And you can do things like people that have visited your website, people on your mailing list, people that like certain things people in certain areas. That's a very powerful tool. I think I originally learned about paid media through just different workshops and short courses that I did.

Display and search Pay Per Click (PPC)

As a small business, budget is important. Therefore, to achieve a high level of efficiency (return for your investment) in your digital marketing campaign is paramount. Selecting the right online activities are part of that process.

Two popular online advertising activities are ‘Display Advertising’ and ‘Search Advertising’. Both these methods of online advertising can be purchased using PPC.

Display advertising

When considering display advertising, start by thinking about how you will reach your target audience.

The best way to execute your display advertising is through Display Networks (such as Google and Bing). The advertisement appears in a designated area on websites that you have nominated to meet the profile of your audience. When the target audience sees your ad and finds it interesting, they will click it and be taken to your website. When the audience clicks your ad, you then pay the display network owner. Learn more about display networks by watching this video about the Google Display Network.

When you are searching for information on display advertising and display networks, you may come across information in relation to publisher networks. Publisher networks buy advertising space on company websites or blogs that attract a particular audience.

After your business has been running for a while and you have generated good traffic to your site for a particular type of audience, there is always the opportunity to monetise your site by selling a small space on your site to a publisher (the companies you have bought your advertising from). When you sell space on your site, this is called monetisation. Consider monetisation only once you have gained high levels of traffic and ranking. If you already have very high traffic to your site, take a read of Safe Tricks Top 15 PPC Sites Publisher Ad Networks for a review some of the best publisher ad networks.

Search advertising

Using search as an advertising tool is a great way to expose your business to the target audience at the top of the search engine results page.

Search advertising is specifically managed through a search network, such as Google Search Network (GSN) and their ‘search partners’ such as AOL etc.

Search advertising is very effective for small businesses because it targets the ‘active’ searcher - someone who has typed specific words into the search engine, so it matches to what they are looking for. This matching increases your chance of getting in front of a prospective target audience and directing them to your website to increase your chances of a purchase.

Activity

Take a look at Hubspot’s PPC Ad Spend Calculator and look at some of the key metrics that can be manipulated depending on your business pricing structure.

Post your Return on Ad Spend in the Comments section below. Were you surprised by your spend?